Article Sidebar
Article Details
While African Health Sciences has been freely accessible online there have been questions on whether it is Open Access or not. We wish to clearly state that indeed African Health Sciences is Open Access. There are key issues regarding Open Access needing clarification for avoidance of doubt:
- 1. Henceforth, papers in African Health Sciences will be published under the CC BY (Creative Commons Attribution License) 4.0 International. See details on https://creativecomons.org/)
- 2. The copyright owners or the authors grant the 3rd party (perpetually and in advance) the right to disseminate, reproduce, or use the research papers in part or in full, format/medium as long as:
- No substantive errors are introduced in the process
- Attribution of authorship and correct citation details are given
- The referencing details are not changed.
Should the papers be reproduced in part, this must be clearly stated.
- 3. The papers will be freely and universally accessible online in an easily readable format such as XML in at least one widely recognized open access repository such as PUBMED CENTRAL.
B. ABRIDGED LICENCE AGREEMENT BETWEEN AUTHORS AND African Health Sciences
I submitted my manuscript to African Health Sciences and would like to affirm that:
1.0 I am authorized by my co-authors to enter into these arrangements.
2.0 I guarantee, on behalf of self and co-authors:
- That the paper is original, and has not been published in any other peer-reviewed journal; nor is it under consideration by other journal (s). It does not infringe existing copyright or any other person’s rights
- That we are/I am the sole author(s) of the paper and with authority to enter into this agreement. My granting rights to African Health Sciences is not in breach of any other obligation
- That the paper contains nothing unlawful, or libelous. Nor anything that would constitute a breach of contract, confidence or commitment given to secrecy, if published
- That I/we have taken care to ensure the integrity of the article.
3.0 I and all co-authors, agree that the paper, if accepted for publication, shall be licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0. (see https://creativecommons.org/)
Main Article Content
Fetal hemoglobin during infancy and in sickle cell adults
Abstract
Objective: The purpose of this study was to determine the waning time of fetal hemoglobin (HbF) and its persistence in later life. Method: Ninety infants aged 0-12 months, admitted at hospital, were tested for their HbF levels. Adult patients numbering 690 were also examined for their sickle cell status and a sickle positive patient of SS type with HbF had her family members recruited and their sickle cell types determined.
Results: The results revealed that HbF was highest (98%) at birth, decreasing at 5% per week till 6 months when it wane off. Ten infants aged 6–12 months had HbF persisting at a level of 10% or more. Adult patients examined showed proportions of their sickle cell types as AS forming 51%, AC 20%, SS 19%, and SC 10%. An SS adult patient with mild sickle cell crisis had an ASF father who had no crisis and a mother and brother with AS each who had severe crisis.
Conclusion: These findings suggest that HbF wanes off during infancy but persist in some adults and may modulate crisis in these adults. This has implications in sickle cell management.
African Health Sciences Vol. 6(1) 2006: 51-54
